Now What?
by Tanaqui
Summary: A certain girl, me, gets sucked into her favorite book, The Dalemark Quartet, and wreaks havoc on the fairy tale endings...


_A/N: This is my very first Diana Wynne Jones ficcy…so read and review please!! LOTS OF THANKS! (sorry if I screw it up…I used to not do Diana Wynne Jones because she's so good, and I didn't want to mess with the plot, but this idea was too good to pass up! Normally I do HP see? ANYwayz) ENJOY!!_

**DISCLAIMER**: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING DIANA WYNNE JONES, which will be lots included in this ficcy…SO DON'T SUE ME!!!

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-- Now What? --

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As I sat there on my favorite chair, reading my favorite book, I couldn't help but be jealous of the main girl character (as I often am, when reading that book). I wanted to be in her place so bad. To see all the things she's seen, do all the things she's done, and go all the places she's gone. But most of all, I wanted to be able to meet the people she's met. Not all of them, mainly just one. The hero of the book. 

True, I've reasoned with myself, that this could never happen. I am in reality. He is in a book, a very well written book, but a book just the same. The only way I could possibly meet him was in a dream.

This made me think. Perhaps I have met him in a dream before, I just haven't been aware of it.

Hmmmm.

Nah.

I would have known it. And besides, meeting him in real life would be nothing like meeting him in a dream, I'd have been able to tell.

So I sat there, reading and wishing, and I wondered whether this was normal, this peculiar feeling I had towards this main character. I felt that it wasn't. After all, what normal eighteen year old girl walked around completely in love with a fictional character? By this time in their lives, normal eighteen year old girls had found real life boyfriends, and were holding hands with them in reality, not in their minds. Also, their boyfriends were probably older then them, not younger…

I pondered the sudden gravity of the situation.

This was bad. Even if I could go into the book, there is no way my age would change. I had been (after all) imagining him to be the same age as me, older in fact. And the reality just hit that he was indeed three years younger than I. That would make him…either a sophomore or junior in high school. Fudge.

What college freshman, soon to be sophomore sits at home and fantasizes about her non-existent relationship with a fictional fifteen year old???

I was crushed. I closed the book and tossed it irreverently onto the floor. There was for sure no hope for me now.

I was greatly saddened by this turn of events. Not to mention I felt sorry for myself. I, a mature adult (nearly) was in love with a fifteen year old, who didn't exist…

Drat it all.

Well whatever. That doesn't mean I can't still enjoy the story. Now…where did my book go?

The book was gone from where I had thrown it, or where I thought I had thrown it. I glanced swiftly around my room. Now where could it have bounced to…?

There it was, sitting quietly by the phone, which was currently off the hook, on the floor.

I should probably put that back on the charger.

I picked up the book, and just when I was about to put the phone back on the charger, it started to ring. The phone, I mean, not the book.

"Hello?"

"Is this Jenny?"

"Indeed it is. Who is this?"

"No one that you need to know about at the moment. Listen, are you holding the book?"

I began to freak out, and consequently dropped the book.

"No."

"Well go get it. When you get it, flip it open to page 92."

"Shan't." I said, as I picked up the book and began rifling through pages.

"Do it, or the book will do it for you anyway."

"I refuse." I said, as I curiously flipped the book open to page 92.

"Good. Now, hang up, and read."

"From the top? Or you know, the middle bit?" I asked, skimming the page.

"From the bit where she takes the statue."

"Right-wait, why am I listening to you?"

"Just trust me. Please."

The line clicked off.

Hmmm…

Obviously some silly prank of my sisters. I put the phone back on the charger, and went to close the book, when I found, to my dismay, that I couldn't. I couldn't even flip any pages. The words that I was supposed to read began to grow larger on the page.

I couldn't resist the urge to see what the heck was going to happen any longer.

I began to read.

Suddenly I felt a very weird feeling, like I was just caught doing something wrong. Everything ached with it. I clenched my jaw, trying to make the pain go away, realized that that only really intensified it, and stopped.

All of a sudden, it stopped. But it felt like my whole body had fallen asleep. Pins and needles all over my hands, legs, feet, face. I never knew till then what it felt like for your face to fall asleep. It was a queer feeling.

Oh God My Vision is Going!

The page I was reading began to get foggier and foggier, till I couldn't see anything anymore, vaguely I heard the phone ringing again.

"Well now what?" I said loudly to no one in particular.

Then it hit me. Cold. Very very cold. Especially for someone who was in pajamas. I began to try to walk around, stumbling blindly in the dark…fog? Was it? Perhaps mist.

Anyway, there I was, stumbling blindly about in the fogmist. I tread on very wet, very cold grass. My bare feet stung with the cold.

"Owweeee!" I squealed as I ran around in circles, kicking my knees up, trying to spend as little time as possible on the ground. I saw a dark figure a little ways away from me, and high stepped quickly towards it.

A very large rock.

Perfect.

I hopped on it, keeping my feet way out of the harmful grass's reach.

Suddenly, it wasn't so cold anymore. I actually felt a contented feeling, as if, as if all of a sudden all was going to be well. I stood there, freaking out, but getting warmer. I looked down at my bare feet, which suddenly weren't so bare. Very large boots were sprouting out of nowhere, and that was soon joined by a lovely pair of baggy pants, something I had been missing up until then. My overly large shirt began to jingle and grow. I was in chain mail, and…a helmet!

I began to giggle to myself. Megz would KILL for this outfit!

I decided to test my new boots by hopping off the rock and trying them on the grass.

Very nice. What was that?

A puff of breath shot out of the mist, accompanied by jingling.

Horse?

I walked slowly towards where the puff of air had come from.

Horse. A fully baggaged horse at that.

I had only ridden a horse once in my life. It seemed foolish to waste this perfectly good opportunity to try it once more.

I scrambled very ungracefully up onto it's back and into the saddle. As I sat there, facing the horses butt, I heard something moving somewhere close. I did my best to hurriedly face the correct direction, before whatever, or whoever it was saw me making an idiot of myself.

I finally had time to wonder where the heck I was. It all seemed so familiar.

"Hello…?" I called hesitantly into the mist, expecting a rabid animal to pounce out from behind the large rock and bite me in the neck.

"Oh-your pardon, lady. I never heard you come." A man stood from behind the large rock she was just sitting on. He was wearing what looked to be poor shepherd's clothes, I mean, not that I know, just by, you know, imagination.

"Err…Who are you?" I asked warily.

"I am Wend, lady, If you remember, we met before."

I looked him up and down. I had definitely never met this dude before…

"Uuuhhh…"

"And I am here to follow you-"

"Woah woah woah – what?"

"Please, lady, if I may finish?"

I nodded slowly.

"I am here to follow you from waystone to waystone along the royal road, until you come to Hern's city of gold and claim your rightful crown."

"Uummm…" Wow I was eloquent today. Why did this man make me feel so awkward?

Taking this as an invitation to continue, he said, "I will tell you what no one else knows. I am the one they call the Wanderer, and I keep the green roads-" he stopped and looked over his shoulder at another jingling sound that was growing nearer.

Now what? And why does this all feel so gosh darn familiar??

There were two men. A smaller one and a larger one.

The smaller one, who looked very noble and grand, greeted me, "Good Morning-"

"Good Morning" I answered back, cursing myself for not letting him continue. He could have given me a hint as to where, or, rather, who I am.

No more cutting people off…

I looked at the larger of the two men. He wasn't half bad looking. He was a lot scruffier looking than the smaller man, and obviously a lot younger.

He smiled at me rather knowingly.

Oh dear. Should I know you? I looked imploringly back at the man who had first introduced himself to me. Wend? Was it?

The smaller man spoke up again, "As you see, Mitt and I have come to be your followers on the royal road."

NO WAY.

I promptly fell off the horse.

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A/N: Did you like it??? Hope you did! Reviews are much welcomed!!! Lotsa Love! 


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